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Ben, I hope you can open it. It would be nice if all the 517 family
could see this. There are many Americans that owe you guys a lot of
gratitude for what we have today. I am so proud of my Dad and all of
you! Bless you all.


The link is www.beforeyougo.us   This is really great.  We often forget
what our men and women is uniform do for our country and us.
DA
>
>----- Original Message -----
>
>Subject: "Before You Go"

>Read the story then click the link to listen to the story and view the
>slide show.  If this doesn't move you, you have no pulse.
>
>
>   The elderly parking lot attendant wasn't in a good mood!
>
>   Neither was Sam Bierstock. It was around 1 a.m., and Bierstock, Delray
>Beach, Fla., eye doctor, business consultant, corporate speaker and
>musician, was bone tired after appearing at an event.
>
>   He pulled up in his car, and the parking attendant began to speak.  "I
>took two bullets for this country and look what I'm doing," he said bitterly.
>
>   At first, Bierstock didn't know what to say to the World War II veteran.
>But he rolled down his window and told the man, "Really, from the bottom of
>my heart, I want to thank you."
>
>   Then the old soldier began to cry.
>
>   "That really got to me," Bierstock says.
>
>   Cut to today.
>
>   Bierstock, 58, and John Melnick, 54, of Pompano Beach -- a member of
>Bierstock's band, Dr. Sam and the Managed Care Band -- have written a song
>inspired by that old soldier in the airport parking lot. The mournful
>"Before You Go" does more than salute those who fought in WWII. It
>encourages people to go out of their way to thank the aging warriors before
>they die.
>
>   "If we had lost that particular war, our whole way of life would have
>been shot," says Bierstock, who plays harmonica. "The WW11 soldiers are now
>dying at the rate of about 2,000 every day. I thought we needed to thank
>them."
>
>   The song is striking a chord. Within four days of Bierstock placing it
>on the Web  http://.beforyougo.us, the song and accompanying photo
>essay have bounced around nine countries, producing tears and heartfelt
>thanks from veterans, their sons and daughters and grandchildren.
>
>   "It made me cry," wrote one veteran's son. Another sent an e-mail saying
>that only after his father consumed several glasses of wine would he
>discuss "the unspeakable horrors" he and other soldiers had witnessed in
>places such as Anzio, Iwo Jima, Bataan and Omaha Beach. "I can never thank
>them enough," the son wrote. "Thank you for thinking about them."
>
>   Bierstock and Melnick thought about shipping it off to a professional
>singer, maybe a Lee Greenwood type, but because time was running out for so
>many veterans, they decided it was best to release it quickly, for free, on
>the Web. They've sent the song to Sen. John McCain and others in
>Washington. Already they have been invited to perform it in Houston for a
>Veterans Day tribute -- this after just a few days on the Web. They hope
>every veteran in America gets a chance to hear it.